National Blog

Rand Paul: Why I voted against the new CIA director

Personal is Policy, which is why many opponents of mass surveillance, warrantless wiretapping, and other violations of the forth amendment where disappointed when President Trump nominated surveillance state defender Mike Pompeo to serve as CIA director.

Senator Rand Paul was the only Republican to oppose Pompeo and in this op-ed for RARE he explains why:

I voted against the new CIA Director because I worry that his desire for security will trump his defense of liberty.

More than ever before, oversight of the secretive world of intelligence is critically important.

Programs are authorized, money is spent, and operations are carried out in the name of the American people, yet only a few members of Congress are even allowed to know what is happening in the dark corners of these U.S. intelligence programs.

Most of Congress was surprised to learn that the U.S. government was collecting all of our phone records in bulk. Most of what our intelligence community does is shielded from the rank and file of Congress. Only eight legislators are privy to the full extent of the surveillance state.

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In addition, many in Congress support a comprehensive, searchable database equipped with “public” data like “lifestyle” choices, an incredible invasion of privacy in some ways more intrusive than the English soldiers that invaded American households to search for any untaxed papers.

Advocates of such a database argue that it will only be searched after obtaining some type of court order.

These advocates fail to understand that our privacy and the Fourth Amendment are breached merely in the collection of our personal data. Our privacy is invaded first by the collection of private information and only secondarily by searching that databank.

The existence of the database itself is a violation of our right to privacy.

Our intelligence community needs more oversight, not less.

here are many supporters of the Surveillance State in Congress. There is, however, a shortage of skeptics. Now that technology and fear have combined to allow the state to watch virtually our every action, someone must pledge to “watch the watchers.”

I swore an oath to defend the Constitution and the rights of the American people. Shielding the CIA from needed oversight is not consistent with that oath.

Protecting the entire Bill of Rights is one of the main reasons I ran for office, and I will remain vigilant in that cause.